The Trade Off
by actionman81
Summary: Peggy Carter is director of SHIELD, engaged to Daniel Sousa, and rather comfortable with her life. Her world is rocked when Steve Rogers appears at her doorstep
1. Chapter 1

1946

"No girl is gonna trade a red white and blue shield for an aluminum crutch" SSR Agent Ray Krzeminski scoffed at the thought of Agent Daniel Sousa being interested in Peggy Carter, herself an agent, but who was treated like more of a secretary around the office, post war.  
Daniel sighed and went back to paperwork that was strewn over the two desks.

1949

Peggy Carter, formerly Agent of the SSR, now actually Director of SHIELD, and for the record, almost technically Peggy Sousa, placed a record on the player, hoping that her fiance Daniel would soon be home. They'd had a whirlwind proposal and a life that was full of action and adventure, not to be minimized because of the downfall of the SSR and the creation of a new organization that she and Howard Stark, along with Chester Phillips, lead, called SHIELD. The inside joke around the office was that the acronym, Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division, were random terms pulled together to signify a particular deceased hero's actual shield.  
Nobody dared even whisper that joke to Director Carter.

For now, Peggy found herself with an afternoon off, while Howard Stark and Chester Phillips were off, doing whatever idiotic man pursuits they had planned, she wasted no time and busied herself with paperwork, then a little rendezvous with her punching bag to limber up, and now, after a fresh shower, she had changed into a red dress. She flipped on a record, "It's Been a Long, Long Time", to let Harry James and the orchestra waft through the room. Turning up the volume slightly, Peggy touched the engagement ring on her third finger.  
"How things have changed" she thought back to how much had indeed transpired over the past few years. From her work with the SSR, to being undervalued, to figuratively and literally fighting her way back to being seen as an agent in post war America, to now, running SHIELD, the newborn organization that picked up where the SSR had left off. Oh, the SSR was still around, now part of the larger SHIELD concept. Daniel remained on, now working with the likes of men like Samberly and Wilkes, handling scientific theories. It wasn't that he couldn't be an agent. If Los Angeles had taught him anything, it was that he could definitely be adept at detective work, but he also no longer felt the pressure to prove anything to anyone. She'd made sure he understood that, even before the SSR had been swallowed up by SHIELD.  
Peggy remembered their conversation, soon after Daniel had proposed to her. They were in the bedroom, but there had been quite a lot of talking going on, and nothing more.  
"Jack Thompson once mentioned that the SSR was going the way of the dinosaurs" she began, "and I'm unfortunately inclined to agree with him" Already sitting in bed, Peggy had on a pair of printed pajamas, short sleeves on the top, with matching pants.  
Daniel's face had been crestfallen hearing that utterance as he fumbled with removing his prosthesis  
"But" she went on, "I'm thinking that we could include it, make it a part of the larger organization"  
"A box within a box, you could say" Daniel supplied, finally removing the artificial leg  
"Quite so" she nodded, "How do you feel about that?"  
"About you running things?" Daniel asked, and then answered his own rhetorical question, "That would be fine" he smiled, "Look Peggy, I know that I said a lot of things out in L.A, and to be honest, part of that just wasn't me"  
"I see" she gave him a sidelong glance, "and you wouldn't mind working under a woman?"  
"Hey, I'm not Jack" he grinned,  
"No" she smiled, "you're not"  
"About that" he began, "I was wrong" he continued, "you weren't being a hypocrite. You're a risk taker, Peggy, and – well, I'm so glad you took a risk on me"  
"No" she shook her head and smiled, "Daniel, you're a sure bet"

And so today, with the beginnings of SHIELD underway, Peggy uncharacteristically waited for her fiance, Daniel Sousa, to return from his work in the formerly SSR branch of SHIELD.  
Just then, as if on cue, the doorbell rang.  
"Odd" Peggy thought to herself, "Why doesn't he just use the key?" she made her way toward the front door, "If he's lost the key again, there'll be hell to pay" she fumed.  
"Daniel, what in the bloody blue blazes have you done with-" she stopped as she opened the door.  
In front of her stood strapping, strong, Steve Rogers.


	2. Chapter 2

Earlier, the day had been rainy, and while Peggy had been working, putting together SHIELD, Steve had been running around New Jersey, trying to find her house. Thankfully, her name wasn't too hard to find in the telephone directory.  
So, here he stood, soaking wet, still dressed in a white and black futuristic uniform.  
"Peggy" Steve smiled  
Peggy Carter, couldn't speak. Here was Steve Rogers, standing at her doorstep. Finally, when she found her voice, a whole volley of unresolved issues bubbled to the surface,  
"Where the hell have you been? Do you know what you even did to me when you left?"  
Steve was taken aback. Peggy didn't let him speak,  
"I thought you were dead" she yelled  
"Surprise?" he attempted a grin  
Just then, the telephone rang, and Peggy had to leave Steve standing there, sopping wet on her stoop, "I'll get back to you later" she was firm, and didn't sound sexy. She sounded stern.  
Peggy pulled the needle off the record and answered the phone.  
It was Daniel.  
"I got caught up in the rain" he explained, "It's not raining now, of course, but I'd told you I was working late because I was hoping to surprise you with dinner tonight, but I'm still at the grocers. It'll be awhile until I can get home"  
"Oh" Peggy sighed, concerned about what to do with Steve, and both hoping that Daniel would hurry home, as well as hoping that he wouldn't. There was no telling what might happen if the two men fought over her like some sort of carnival prize. "I'll see you when you come over here" she smiled  
They said their good-byes and she put the phone back down on the cradle.  
"Who was that?" Steve asked from the door  
"That was my fiance" Peggy was matter of fact. There was no reason hiding it now, "I'm engaged"  
"Engaged?" Steve sounded surprised, even uncharacteristically jealous, "What can he do that I can't?"  
"He" Peggy picked up the photo of Steve, pre-serum, that stood on the mantle, "reminds me of who you used to be" she smiled sadly  
"I'm still that guy" Steve grinned broadly  
"No" Peggy shook her head and replaced the photo on the mantle, "You're not" she sighed. "This" she picked up another photo, this one showing Daniel before his accident, "is my fiance, Daniel" she went on, placing it back on the mantle, "and I think in some part, the reason I love him is because he does that- he reminds me of you, the man you were"  
"You love him?" Steve looked confused, and cautiously took a step inside the house. This entire time, he'd been rooted inside the door frame, especially after Peggy's tongue lashing.  
Peggy turned away from the phone and looked at him. Water droplets fell from his still soaked uniform onto the hardwood floor.  
"Oh, for heaven's sake" she fumed, "go into the guest room and change into something dry. I have a few of Daniel's things kept aside for emergencies"  
After several minutes, Steve bounded into the living room, dressed in a sweater vest, shirt, tie, slacks, and frowned, "He's got two different sized feet?" he stared down at his shoes, Daniel's shoes, which apparently didn't fit right on anyone else.  
Peggy knew exactly why Daniel's shoes might seem an ill fit to Steve, let alone to anyone else. One shoe, the left, had been stretched from Daniel's prosthetic leg. As for the other, it seemed to fit fine. Peggy glanced at the clock. All that had to happen was for Daniel to arrive home. There was never anything to worry about regarding his actual arrival, and it certainly wasn't as if he'd fly off the handle like a shrew of a wife. No, Peggy was more worried that the two men would physically fight each other.  
She looked at Steve warily. Seeing him dressed up in her Daniel's clothes was unsettling. The odd thing though, was that Steve looked right at home. Perhaps in another life, she could have imagined him, Steve, being her husband. Peggy wistfully allowed herself a daydream, except in that moment's vision, her mind's eye saw not the man before her, but the frail, slight man who'd won her heart in 1942.  
Steve broke Peggy from her momentary daydream. He placed the needle back on the record player and let Harry James' song fill the room again.  
"How about that dance?" he smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

Peggy didn't have to think. The music was playing, and here was Steve Rogers standing right in front of her. She allowed herself to be pulled into a hug that transformed into Steve leading her in a slow dance around the living room.  
James' voice filled the room, "You'll never know how many dreams/I've dreamed about you/Or just how empty they all seemed without you"  
It felt good, safe, warm, her face against Steve's shoulder, her body against his massive chest, his heart beating against hers. She closed her eyes for a moment.  
Steve held her close, his right hand held her left, his fingers stroked hers, and as he touched her simple engagement band, she sighed in contentment.  
"Maybe this was what I'd been waiting for?" she mulled over in her mind, "Daniel's wonderful, and we do have a good life, but Steve is- well, Steve" she smiled, looked up, and kissed him.  
Her mind drifted back to all the adventures she'd had, from Steve's becoming Captain America, to nearly the end of the war, what was later known as World War Two. "Four years" she thought, "four years was quite a long time" her mind wandered back to when she'd first fallen for Steve  
Chester Phillips had his heart set on making Gilroy Hodge the next super soldier, and tested Hodge and the rest of the recruits by throwing a then-unknown-to-be dummy grenade into the mix of exercising troops. Peggy remembered that she'd no idea that the grenade was nonlethal, and had raced forward to fling it away at best, or should she have to, lay down her life to stop the explosion. Unfortunately, weak, minute, Steve Rogers had beaten her to it. He'd flung himself onto the grenade and yelled for the other recruits to stay back, lest they were injured by the imminent shrapnel.  
She'd looked at him, smaller than she was, certainly not weighing any more than scarcely a hundred pounds, soaking wet, and knew then, that this man, this was the sort of man she could see herself being happy with.  
Now, Peggy sighed, but felt that the strapping man who towered over her couldn't possibly know how it had been to be that tiny, nearly emaciated man who'd stolen her heart.  
Of course, it hadn't only been that moment, in trying to bodily stop a grenade from going off, that had won Peggy's heart.  
Steve kissed her back now, in the present.  
Peggy's mind was a flurry of thoughts, "It's an indescribable feeling, when you want something so much, and here it is, and yet, even though it feels so good, so right, as it should be, you can't help but wonder about it. So, you second guess yourself, and then you second guess your choices."  
"I missed you" she finally spoke, looking up at him  
"I did, too" he smiled  
"But, I can't do this" she sighed, and pulled away.  
"It's him" Steve meant Daniel  
"No" she shook her head, not trusting herself to speak more.  
"Then what?" Steve frowned, his voice was slightly, ever so slightly, firmer. He wasn't angry, or upset. He simply wanted to understand, to know.  
"I was in love with you" she explained at last, "I mourned your death. I grieved, and not a moment went on after the day, that I lost you- not a moment, that you weren't a part of me, a part of everything I do, of everything I've done"  
"I'm back, doesn't that matter?"  
Harry James had finished singing. The only sound coming from the record player was the turntable spinning scratchy revolutions.  
"Of course it does" she hugged herself. Part of her wanted to be back in his strong embrace, yet another part of her wanted some distance, some mental quiet, to think.  
"Four years" she said aloud, explaining, "I've had four years with you, saving the world, as it were" she went on, "but I've had four years without you, and I'm still doing everything I can to save the world"  
"We could – we could do that together" Steve countered gently  
"I've told you, I've explained, about Daniel, and how he makes me feel, how he reminds me of you"  
"You don't need to be reminded of me, I'm right here" Steve sounded self explanatory  
"You're here" she sighed, "and you look very nice" she smiled momentarily before it faded from her face, "dressed up in my fiance's clothes, but what about while you were gone from my life? I didn't have anyone to save me, and I certainly didn't need any one, no man of course, to rescue me. I could do quite a good job, thank you very much"  
"Peggy, I'm not here to rescue you"  
"Then what do you call this? Showing up, expecting me to run straight into your arms as if all the past four years didn't matter? As if the rest of my life didn't matter?"  
"That's not what I'm saying" he began  
She didn't let him finish, "It most certainly is what you're saying" she was firm, "I suppose you think that I simply waited for your arrival until this very moment?"  
Steve barely opened his mouth to respond. Peggy didn't let him get a word in edgewise, "Steve Rogers, you may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but to me, you were always the man who did the right thing. The person who put others first. You were a man with great morals dealing with very real physical hardships"  
Steve wanted to explain himself.  
Peggy put up her hand to stop him, "When I was merely an agent in the SSR, my gender was considered a disability. In the greater world, here, it is still considered that. Right now, I'm working something much greater than the SSR"  
"Yeah, I know" Steve finally exhaled  
"And yet you don't seem to be dealing with any physical hardships right now. You've all but forgotten who that man in Camp Lehigh who used his brains more than any other candidate there"  
"Just because I'm different on the outside, doesn't mean I've changed inside"  
"Steve" Peggy sighed sadly, "Tell me, honestly tell me how you could possibly know what it's like to be that man who I loved, the one who understood how difficult things are for someone like you. How could you still be that man now that all those obstacles have gone away?" she shook her head, "you can remember those times, but you can't be that man ever again. Your life is completely different now"  
"What about this Daniel? What are you going to do with him?"Steve countered  
"I don't know, Steve" she sounded fed up with his line of questioning, "I really don't. Perhaps we'll embark on a fabulous love affair, or we'll realize we're bad at domestic chores and we can't compromise on who washes the dishes" she frowned, "but at least I know that he understands. His lot in life is like mine, unchanging. I can't go from being a woman in a male dominated society. He can't magically grow another leg, despite whatever fanciful declarations that Howard Stark makes"  
Steve's scowl faded. He looked crestfallen, "Where that does that leave us then?"  
"I'm not sure" Peggy spoke the truth. She had no idea, not really, "You hurt me" she finally continued, "all you had to do was give me your bloody coordinates. I could have found you in hours, days perhaps, instead of after four long years"  
"Seventy" Steve corrected her  
"Seventy" Peggy repeated, understanding  
"I should've" Steve apologized, "and I'm sorry that I didn't give you the coordinates. I thought- I thought that I was doing the right thing"  
"That's" Peggy's voice broke with emotion, "that's why you and I – we – this couldn't work" she crossed the room to the fireplace and mantle, held the photo of Daniel, "you asked what would I do with Daniel?" she gazed at the photo for a moment, "You wanted to know why I'm even with him" she replaced the photo on the mantle, "At least with Daniel, he'll listen to me, especially when he knows that I care about him, that I'm concerned for his safety. That's more than you've ever done"  
Steve wanted to continue. He wanted to say something to reassure her that he could be that man, a man who listened to her, who thought the world of her, like this Daniel fellow did.  
He wanted to say all of that and more. Except that just then, the front door opened up.  
"Peggy" Daniel called, his back against the opening door. His crutch tapped on the hardwood floor. "I had to borrow this cart to get everything home again. Maybe we can drop it off tomorrow" he leaned on his crutch and walked backwards, pulling a small wagon filled with groceries behind him.  
He turned around, and saw Peggy standing there with Steve Rogers.  
"Oh, you've got company?" he smiled.


	4. Chapter 4

"Daniel" Peggy forced a smile, "can you bring that in the kitchen. I've got a bit of business with – ah"  
"Right" Daniel nodded and pulled the wagon into kitchen. Daniel knew not to ask too many questions, especially in front of business associates. There was protocol to follow, and while Peggy and Daniel were certainly equal at home, there were rules and regulations to toe where work was concerned.  
Peggy knew that Daniel understood. They'd had the conversation back when SHIELD had begun, a conversation that had occurred soon after Peggy and Daniel's engagement.  
For all intents and purposes, it looked like Daniel hadn't recognized Steve, since he, Daniel, had come through the door walking backwards, dragging the wagon with him, and had gone directly into the kitchen, scarcely glancing at Peggy's company.  
While Daniel puttered about in the kitchen, unloading the groceries and putting them away in their various places, Peggy pulled Steve closer to the front door.  
"You've had your fun" she was firm, "and now it's time to go"  
"What are you talking about?" Steve frowned, "I've come back, all this way just for you, and you're going to throw me out on my ear?"  
"Life's moved on" she explained, frustrated, "the world's moved on; it's changed. Sometimes, the best thing to do in a situation like that is to start over" she exhaled, "I know that I did"  
Steve grinned, remembering their conversation when he'd visited her in the convalescent home.  
"Well, I'm glad that the concept has made you smile at least" she was terse, "I'm sorry" she didn't sound sorry at all, "but this is my decision"  
"You're going to throw away everything we had, for him?" Steve pointed though the open doorway to the kitchen, where Daniel was heating up a saucepan over the fire.  
"Yes" she was emphatic  
"What can he do that I can't?" Steve repeated his question from earlier.  
"He listens to me. And, he respects me"  
"I-I- I never laid a hand on you unless you wanted me to" Steve faltered, for the first time since he came here.  
"Not like that" she sounded exasperated, "but yes, that, too. Have you forgotten leaping out of a still moving aircraft even though you were given explicit instructions not to"  
"That was different, it was seventy- I mean"  
"Maybe for you, it was seventy years ago" Peggy scowled, "but for me, it was barely eight" she went on, "and if you'd listened to me that last time, instead of being so overly dramatic, you'd have been with me right now"  
"but I'm here with you right now!" Steve's voice rose finally. That was all it took for Daniel to shut off the stove's burner and walk, crutch in hand, to the living room.  
Meanwhile, Steve went on, "Do you want me to go back to being what I was before? The man who couldn't get a dance for fear of being stepped on?" he snapped at her.  
"I think you owe the lady an apology" Daniel stepped forward, crutch in one hand, a dishrag in the other.  
"I suppose you're going to snap me with that towel?" Steve scowled at the other man.  
"No" Peggy spoke up, "I'm going to ask you to leave" she scowled equally hard at Steve.  
"Where do you expect me to go?" Steve balked, looking for an answer.  
"You're resourceful" Peggy's voice was hard, "you were the only one who could get that damn flag down. You'll think of something"  
"You're shutting me out of your life, just like that?" Steve queried  
"No" Peggy shook her head sadly, "Life has moved on, and maybe you should, too"  
"Some people move on, but I don't" Steve stepped outside of the doorway as Peggy closed it behind him.  
As he stood outside the closed door momentarily, Steve heard Daniel from inside ask, "Who was that guy? And was that my sweater?"  
Steve scoffed to himself, some people moved on, but not him.  
This wasn't over.


	5. Chapter 5

Peggy Carter surreptitiously peeked out from behind the window curtains to make sure Steve had left. She breathed a sigh of relief. The last thing she needed, let alone wanted, was for the two men to have some sort of all-out brawl right there in the living room.  
She turned back toward her fiance. Daniel Sousa stood there, one arm plugged into his forearm crutch, the other bent akimbo, his right fist against his hip. He didn't look confused. He wasn't smiling.  
He frowned at his fiance.  
"So, he's actually back?" Daniel sounded as if he knew the answer to his question.  
Peggy narrowed her gaze in confusion and then in realization, "You recognized him?"  
"I'm a detective, too, you know" Daniel sighed, "and you've had that photo" he gestured with his available hand, "on the mantle since you moved in here"  
"That may be true," Peggy began, remembering that what Daniel said was indeed true. After having moved back to New York after the Isodyne case, Peggy had bought the house, feeling that surely her and Daniel would marry, especially after their hushed office romance in Los Angeles. She'd indeed kept Steve's photo on the mantle, along with one of Daniel, "but you could've said something" she finished.  
"In front of him?" Daniel looked incredulously at her, "and what if he'd decided to handle things with his fists?"  
"This coming from a man who could handle hand to hand combat with Dottie Underwood?" Peggy smiled for the first time during their conversation  
"At least I could until she decided to do some crazy jumping thing down the staircase"  
"I highly doubt you'll have to worry about that from Steve" she smiled, and then dropped that expression from her face.  
"It's ok" Daniel was quick to offer an olive branch, "I didn't want to cause a scene, and you were handling things pretty well, yourself"  
"Thank you" she felt herself color  
There were a few moments of silence between them, as the easy conversation fell to the wayside.  
Finally, Peggy spoke, "You needn't be afraid that I'll rush off after him" she reassured Daniel  
"I really didn't think about that until you brought up the idea just now" he was candid, "But I guess I've always been afraid that maybe what Krzeminski said was true"  
"That I 'knew' a lot of men during the war?" she pursed her lips  
"No" he conceded, "that somebody like you would never be interested in me when you'd had – um" he gestured to the door with his crutch, "him"  
Peggy didn't know how to respond to that. It was something she'd thought about, but Steve had been dead, yet now he had returned.  
As if on cue, Daniel voiced her thought, "Now, he's back, and you could have – be with him again" he looked at her, "I wouldn't blame you, and I wouldn't stop you"  
Peggy didn't look crestfallen. Rather, she looked furious,  
"Now see here, Daniel Sousa, as I told you a few years ago, I am more than capable at handling whatever is thrown at me" she went on, "and I certainly don't need you falling on your sword as some sort of poorly aimed sacrifice for my sake" she frowned, "What do you think I planned to do? Run off with someone I hadn't seen for nearly a decade? Someone who shows up in the most ridiculous outfit and expects me to drop everything and act as if no time had passed by?"  
"Hold on" Daniel looked confused, "what outfit? He was wearing my clothes!"  
"No, no" Peggy shook her head, "I mean, yes he had on your clothes, and I suppose we'll find a way to deal with that-" she walked back to the guest room and returned holding Steve's time travel uniform, holding the suit by its neck. "This" she explained, holding the boots by their uppers in another hand.  
"Won't he need that back?" Daniel queried, "I mean, what if he wants to go back?"  
"Back to where? Seventy years into the future, as he says?" Peggy snapped, "he can bloody well head back there dressed in his underwear for all I care. I do not need any man, and that includes you, my dear, treating me like some sort of – what do you call it? A side of beef. I do not need such objectifying treatment from any man"  
"Understood loud and clear" Daniel nodded, "but still- I better go give this to him"  
"This? If he wants it back so badly, he can show up here for it"  
"That's what I'm afraid of"  
Daniel hobbled to the kitchen and returned with an empty grocery sack. He took the Pym uniform from Peggy and placed it in the paper bag.  
Before Peggy could stop Daniel, he was out the door,  
"If I was Steve Rogers in New Jersey" he thought, "where would I go?"


	6. Chapter 6

"I think that you'd better ask me that question instead of yourself" Peggy appeared beside Daniel at the doorstep.

"Peggy, what are you doing?" Daniel looked quizzically at her

"I suppose if you're absolutely hellbent on completing this task, it might do you good to talk with someone who actually knew Steve Rogers"

"That's the other thing I'm afraid of" Daniel quipped, "knew" he emphasized the term.

"Daniel Sousa" she scowled, "I am not about to repeat myself" she continued, "we are engaged to be married, and nothing in the foreseeable future should change that", she took the uniform from him, "now, let's at least take the car, or were you planning on walking around New Jersey, whistling for him as though he was a lost dog?"

"And I guess because you knew him so well, you've got an idea of where he went?" Daniel frowned

Actually, yes, I do" Peggy walked back into the house and snatched the car keys off their spot in the living room.

"Just as I'd suspected" Peggy shook her head sadly. Steve Rogers sat at the bar, still dressed in Daniel's clothes, nursing what appeared to be a stiff drink.

"I think you've had enough, buddy" the bartender took the bottle away from Steve, but the super soldier shook his head and held onto the bottle.

"You know, I can't get drunk" he stared at the bartender.

"Whatever pal, it's your funeral"

"I've been to a funeral" Steve scoffed, "and then I fell for her all over again"

"Uh" the bartender didn't know what to say, He left the bottle, as Steve has demanded.

"It's one thing to drink because you lost your friend Barnes" Peggy stared at Steve, "it's quite another to do that when you feel sorry for yourself" she shook her head, 'and that's not the Steve Rogers that I remember"

"He's alive" Steve blurted out before he'd had the forethought to keep quiet.

"What?" Peggy's eyes grew large, "Barnes is alive?"

"Never mind" Steve sighed, and downed another drink, "none of it really matters now. I can't fix things, even if I wanted to"

What are you talking about?"

"I have to leave things the way they are" Steve explained, talking to Peggy as though she were a child, "because if I change things, I could ruin the time stream"

"Then go do it" she was short with him

"What?" Steve stared at her

"Here's the suit" Daniel dragged himself in, leaning on his crutch and carrying the folded suit, boots and helmet under his available arm.

"Thank you" Peggy took the bundle from her fiancé, and turned to Steve, "If you want to go save your friend Barnes, then go do it." She narrowed her eyes at him, "Surely you didn't come all this way just for a dance?"

"Well-" Steve began. He realized how he must have sounded then. Traveling such a distance, just for a kiss, for a dance, for a life that he thought he wanted.

"You did" she looked angry and horrified at him, all at once

"I lost everyone I loved" he sighed, "You know how that is, right?"

"I do" her face darkened, "and I know that just a short time ago, you expected me to welcome you with open arms, and act as though nothing has changed, no time had transpired over the past four years" she thrust the bundle at him. "But is has" she crossed her arms, "I won't stop you if you want to stay" she glared at him, "but if your friend Barnes really is that important to you, then you have a decision to make"

"Can I say something?" Daniel put in. Peggy glanced at him and didn't say anything in response.

Daniel took that as a sign he could speak, "Steve, you said that you lost someone. I thought my life was heading one way, in a direction - and then, things change. I lost a leg, and then I lost my credibility at work" he sighed, "and then- then I met someone, and I realized that I had worth, I had a purpose" he looked at Peggy, "to paraphrase a very wise woman, "I learned that I have value, and that others' opinions didn't really matter"

Peggy smiled at Daniel.

"You have a purpose" Daniel spoke to Steve, "I don't know what it is. She probably does" he motioned towards Peggy, "and it's not up to me or anyone else to tell you. It's something you have to do for yourself"

"My fiancé makes sense" Peggy nodded, "and I can't tell you what to do, Steve" she went on, "Only you can do that"

Steve looked from the love of his life, over to her fiancé, and back again.

"So" she inquired with her eyes, "What will it be?"


	7. Chapter 7

Peggy and Daniel left Steve to his own devices. "He'll make the right decision" Peggy assured Daniel.  
"As long as it's not trying to steal my fiancé" he joked, but his face colored in pain.  
"Daniel" Peggy began, "I've moved on, and the world has changed" she slipped her arm in his, "and I'd never dream of trading you for anyone else"  
"Even the love of your life?" Daniel looked incredulous  
"You're the love of my life" she pulled him close for a kiss. They made their way from the bar, down the sidewalk, back to their vehicle.

1950

"Unfortunately, Operation Paperclip will have to be put on hold as Arnim Zola and Johann Fennhoff were both found murdered in their shared cell." Peggy sighed as she read aloud the report from another agent.

1970

"I thought I had more" Hank Pym, long hair in his face, turned around in his lab. "Back to the drawing board" he placed some notebooks on his desk, next to a photo of his wife, Janet. He never notice the two privates, blonde and brunette, walk quickly back down the hallway.

1991

"Watch out, Howard" Maria Stark shouted  
The car swerved wildly on the icy road and slammed side first into a tree.  
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Maria yelled at her husband, "you nearly ran over that deer"  
"So I would've killed Bambi" Stark scoffed. "Let's just get the hell out of here" he glanced down at the metal suitcase on the floorboard, "Damn it" he frowned. The suitcase lay unlatched and the vials were broken on the car's foot mats. "We'll have to go home again" he scowled.  
The long drive back to Stark Mansion was silent for both husband and wife, but they had more than enough to say when they found teenage Tony passed out on the living room floor, dead drunk.

2011

"I couldn't forget my best girl" Steve looked at wizened Peggy Carter, "You've helped me so much"  
Peggy narrowed her rheumy eyes at him, "What is it?"

"For as long as I can remember, I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore, and I thought I could throw myself back in, follow orders, serve. It's just not the same."

"You were always so dramatic. Look, you saved the world. Meanwhile, the SSR rather mucked it up."

"You didn't. Knowing you helped created SWORD. is half the reason I stayed."

"The world has changed, and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes, the best that we can do, is to start over" she glanced over from young Steve Rogers to the framed photos on her night stand, which showed her two children, Michael and Angela Harper, and that showed her husband, Daniel Sousa.

She coughed and drank some water. She looked back over to the strapping blonde young man.  
"Steve. You're alive. You came back"  
"Yeah" Steve sighed. It killed him to see her like this  
"I've got to tell Daniel" she looked at him, wide eyed, "He'll want to meet you. The one that got away"  
"Right, Daniel" Steve nodded absently, "Maybe later. You get some rest"  
"Rest" Peggy looked blankly at him, "Alright" she closed her eyes  
Steve stood up and headed to the door. Being defrosted like some sort of television dinner, after seventy years was too much to deal with, but he'd managed. What made his breath catch in his throat, though, was when, almost at the door, he heard her mumble something just out of earshot. He turned back, willing her to repeat it.  
And she did  
"I love you, Daniel"


End file.
